eller Indiæ Occidentalis beskrijffningh translated with AI.
Original: https://runeberg.org/resanyasv/

A Description of the Geography of America or the West Indies

(The Original Title Page of Lindeström’s Manuscript)

FOREWORD (By the Editor, 1923)

Travel accounts, especially those from earlier times, often possess great cultural-historical value due to their strongly personal perspective, as travelers typically recount their own adventures and observations, vividly depicting the conditions, folk life, and culture of bygone eras. Swedish travel accounts from the 1600s, Sweden’s age as a great power, are not particularly numerous. And only a few of them tell of Swedish people’s journeys to foreign continents — quite naturally, as these were largely unknown and the Swedes still had no connections with non-European countries. The most well-known among Swedish 17th-century travelers is ”Traveler Bengt,” reverently and thoroughly described by our great explorer Sven Hedin.

Less known to the general public are Nils Matsson Kiöping and Olof Eriksson Willman, who in the mid-1600s undertook even longer journeys to the Orient, the latter all the way to Japan, which they described in travel accounts that remain worth reading today, though not reprinted for many years. But the most entertaining and exciting of all Swedish travel accounts from the 1600s has, remarkably enough, until now lain hidden, though not entirely forgotten, among the manuscripts in the National Archives.

It is a work by fortification engineer Per Lindeström with the somewhat misleading title ”Geographia Americæ or Description of the West Indies,” which is presented here — the first and only detailed account of a journey to our first colony, New Sweden on the Delaware in North America, the nature and conditions there, the Indians’ appearance, way of life, religion and friendly relations with the Swedes, as well as New Sweden’s ignominious capitulation to the Dutch, and more. With an engineer’s keen eye, the author has observed all possible conditions, and he proves to possess a great ability to humorously and aptly convey what he saw and experienced. That a sailor’s tale or two came along surely does not diminish our interest. He has also drawn two maps of New Sweden for the manuscript, sketched an Indian family, a drawing of Trinity Fort, and one of the Dutch siege of Fort Christina, which images are reproduced here.

It is the publisher’s and editor’s hope that Lindeström’s travel account, through this popular edition, will become known and appreciated by the Swedish public, as it deserves. Our compatriots on the other side of the Atlantic should also be able to derive both benefit and pleasure from it.

The Author’s Life Story

Unfortunately, Per Lindeström’s life story has not yet been thoroughly researched. Even his birth year is unknown to us. He was the son of Mårten Månsson, who as a soldier adopted the name Lindeström. He first studied for a time at Uppsala University, then obtained employment as secretary at the Bureau of Mines for two years. After a period of continued university studies in mathematics and fortification, he was appointed in the autumn of 1653 to accompany, as fortification engineer, the tenth expedition sent to relieve Governor Printz in New Sweden aboard the ship Örnen (The Eagle) under the command of Commissioner Johan Rising. This journey he describes in detail in ”Geographia Americæ”.

During the voyage, he had the opportunity in the Canary Islands to visit a great many monasteries, defend his orthodox Lutheran faith against a monk who wanted to convert him to the cult of Mary, and witness the Catholics’ peculiar passion plays during Holy Week. Here he also came close to being stabbed to death by a Frenchman who had set an ambush for him. In New Sweden, he performed important services for the Swedish trading company by mapping the land and putting the fortifications in better condition. He also drew up the plans for the Swedish colony’s intended capital, ”Kristinehamn,” not far from Fort Christina on the site where the city of Wilmington now stands, and otherwise assisted the new governor, Johan Rising, with advice and action. He himself recounted the role he played when Trinity Fort and Fort Christina were forced to capitulate, as well as his adventures during the journey home from New Sweden after the Dutch had made themselves masters of the land. After his return home, he had to submit written and oral reports to the government about New Sweden and the causes of its capitulation, and show his map of the land. He was then urged to write a detailed account of America and especially New Sweden, but all he managed to produce at that time was, besides some brief notes, a large map of New Sweden that hung for many years on the wall of the council chamber at the royal palace.

In April 1657, he was employed as fortification engineer in Jämtland to improve the fortifications there and then participated in Charles X Gustav’s campaign against the Danes. In 1661, he traveled abroad again to seek his fortune in foreign lands but does not appear to have had any brilliant success. After a few years, he therefore returned, married, and settled in Brosäter in Värmland, where he presumably engaged in agricultural work. Here in 1679 he contracted a severe illness that from 1683 kept him constantly bedridden until his death in 1691. Only during this final period of illness did he find peace and quiet from his ”diligent service” to work out his travel memories from America and write his ”Geographia Americæ,” about which not only the government but also other ”persons of lower rank, both secular and clerical, had long petitioned him.” The preface to ”the honored and kind reader” is dated December 21, 1691. From all that he had been forced ”to spend and pay out of his small means on doctors and medicine,” he was now so ruined that in his dedication to the then nine-year-old Prince Charles, he begs him to ”by high grace and highly praiseworthy generosity open his merciful hand and refresh and comfort me in this my miserable, lamentable, and troubled state with some condolence.” We understand from this that his book also had an economic purpose. This could not be achieved, however, as he died shortly thereafter. His poor widow, Margareta Roos, nevertheless received 200 riksdaler from Charles XI in May 1693. Lindeström appears in his work as a vigorous and spirited person who fearlessly, indeed almost passionately, fights for his own and his country’s interests. In New Sweden, he was once summoned to court because he had ”beaten an Englishman black and blue.” His impetuosity was tempered, however, by his humorous view of people, events, and circumstances.

The Development of the Colony of New Sweden up to the Time of the Author’s Visit and the Causes of Its Downfall

To properly understand the following account, we should briefly describe the Swedish colony’s development up to the author’s journey there and the causes of the colony’s tragic downfall.

The small Swedish settler colony, which was founded on Axel Oxenstierna’s initiative in March 1638, when two Swedish ships ”Kalmare Nyckel” and ”Fågel Grip,” loaded with soldiers, some settlers, provisions, and various trade goods, arrived at the Delaware, had to struggle from the beginning with great difficulties. Its first leader, the German Peter Minuit, who had previously in Dutch service become well acquainted with both the Indians and the land, perished the following year on the return journey to Europe. Only a few Swedes and Finns had the desire in the first years to embark on the long adventurous voyage to the distant, unknown wilderness with its wild and brave inhabitants. The forest-clearing Finns,

Here’s a translation into modern English:

escaped soldiers, poachers, vagrants, and other criminals, whom the government then forcibly sent out there, were hardly suitable as pioneers for Swedish culture among the forest peoples. New Sweden Company’s finances were so poor that certain years no ships could be sent over. Gradually, however, interest in the colonization plan grew, and after 10 years more emigrants applied than could be taken on the ships that, usually one or two per year, sailed over with new people, trade goods, and other necessities, and that returned to Sweden with cargoes of tobacco and furs and with some soldiers and colonists who could not bear to remain in the new land. A first small ”America fever” arose in Sweden in the late 1640s due to the fantastic stories that spread about the land’s fertility and wealth of gold. No more criminals were allowed to land.

over the settlers, who then still numbered only a couple of hundred including wives and children. In 1644, the number of men is given as 90, of whom 31 were employed in ”planting tobacco.” The others were officers, soldiers, carpenters, sailors, etc. Their dwellings were simple log cabins with hatches instead of windows, and their living conditions were extremely primitive.

Indian camp.

Among the emigrants were some Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch farmers who received land to cultivate from the ”West India” or ”American Company” (”Compagnie de Nova Suecia”) along with wages for its cultivation and later ownership rights to the land. They were called ”freemen” (free farmers) as opposed to forced laborers, so-called ”slaves,” that is, such persons, men or women, who had either been forcibly deported due to crimes or who had sold themselves to the company to be transported over. The company then had the right to ”sell them” for a certain number of years. It could also happen that persons were kidnapped in the great port cities of Europe and sold as slaves. All of these were to become free after six years of service. Negro slaves, on the other hand, were slaves for life. Only one such is mentioned in New Sweden.

The company’s principal source of income was the profitable barter trade with the Indians, which Lindeström describes in detail here. The Swedes therefore sought to place themselves on the best footing with the Indians. In addition, the colonists cultivated tobacco, corn, rye, beans, etc. For protection against hostile attacks by Indians as well as Englishmen and Dutchmen, a number of primitive fortifications were built of logs, stones, and earth, chief among them ”Fort Christina,” which was the colony’s main town. Governor Printz built three miles from Christina further up the river on the island of Tenakong (present-day Tinicum in Philadelphia) for himself and his family a ”manor” called ”Printzhof,” ”very costly and well built, with garden, pleasure house and such.” In the same place, he also erected a small wooden church and a fort, ”New Gothenburg,” which with its four cannons was to control the passage to the Dutch ”Fort Nassau” located higher up on the opposite side. At Tenakong, the most prominent ”freemen” now had their residences and plantations. In addition, he established at places important for trade with the Indians several other forts and smaller settlements with blockhouses, such as ”Korsholm,” ”New Älvsborg,” ”Uppland,” ”Mölndal,” ”Wasa,” and others. In this way, the Swedes gained dominion over the river and could control the important trade routes from it into the interior.

Already with the second expedition in 1640, a Swedish pastor, Reorus Torkillus, went out to New Sweden to take care of pastoral care among the colonists. Inside the ramparts at Fort Christina, a small unpretentious wooden chapel was erected, which was the first Lutheran church in America, just as he was the first Lutheran pastor there. Governor Printz had the pastor who traveled with him, Johan Campanius, settle near ”Printzhof” and serve as a kind of garrison chaplain at the fort of New Gothenburg, where a small log church of wood with a bell tower and surrounding churchyard was erected in 1643. After a fire a couple of years later, it was replaced with a larger and better wooden church. Another pastor, Israel Fluviander, served simultaneously at Fort New Älvsborg, which controlled the entrance to the river (see map). Campanius is particularly known as a warm friend to the Indians. He is the first Lutheran pastor to have attempted to do something for their conversion to Christianity.[1]

A fort. After R. Cronau.

Meanwhile, the little colony’s position became increasingly worrisome. It was not enough that many of the settlers were carried off by diseases due to unfamiliarity with the climate, and that some were so poor that they had to be supported at the company’s expense, and that others fled out of dissatisfaction with Printz’s strict regime to the Englishmen’s or Dutchmen’s neighboring colonies. The worst was that already in the autumn of 1646, a break occurred with the rival Dutch due to disputes over land purchases. Dutch colonists namely purchased from the Indians areas that the Swedes had previously bought from them. Furthermore, they disputed about trade with the Indians. The situation was worsened by Printz’s proud and brusque behavior. He also made himself unpopular among the Swedish settlers, for his regime was sometimes almost tyrannical. ”But it certainly required a firm hand to govern the rough and unruly elements of which the colony partly consisted.” (Am. Johnson). He reported in 1650 that he scarcely had 30 men he could fully rely on.

A blockhouse in the primeval forest. After R. Cronau.

In 1647, the powerful, determined Peter Stuyvesant had been appointed governor of the Dutch company’s colony, ”Nova Batavia” or ”New Netherland.” Now disputes between the two governors became ever more frequent, neither of whom would yield. In 1651, the Dutch established, with a superior force under the Swedes’ powerless protests, a new fortification, ”Fort Casimir,” with 12 cannons on a peninsula near present-day New Castle midway between Fort Christina and Fort New Älvsborg, on Swedish territory purchased from the Indians, whereby they could completely control the river and force all merchants to pay tolls.

Map of New Sweden.

At the same time, the long-awaited relief shipments from Sweden failed to arrive. Klas Fleming, the trading company’s driving force, had died (1644), and Axel Oxenstierna had neither time nor strength to look after the colony’s welfare.

Peter Stuyvesant. Dutch governor in ”Manhattan” or ”New Amsterdam.”

The company’s affairs went worse and worse, and an expensive expedition from Sweden in 1649 with the ship ”Kattan” was completely wrecked when the ship ran aground among the West Indian islands and was plundered by the Spaniards, after which the Swedes were taken as prisoners to Puerto Rico. They soon regained their freedom, but stripped of everything, many were tempted to convert to Catholicism, others were tortured in various ways, and only a few returned to Sweden. Governor Printz now sent messenger after messenger home to Sweden in vain with cries for help. When he had received no news from the homeland for six years, he decided along with 25 other colonists to travel to Sweden on a Dutch ship (Nov. 1653). Those remaining were only about 70 persons. He appointed his son-in-law, Johan Papegoja, as vice governor. Meanwhile, in Sweden they had not entirely forgotten the distressed countrymen on the other side of the Atlantic. After Axel Oxenstierna, his son, Erik Oxenstierna, had become director of New Sweden in 1652. While Printz was on his way home, he sent from Gothenburg in February 1654 a new, tenth expedition with the ship ”Örnen” (The Eagle), the very one whose journey is described here in such detail by engineer Lindeström. It carried no fewer than 350 persons including women and children, both officers, soldiers, and colonists, of whom however about a hundred perished during the crossing through plague that broke out on board. The commander was the secretary of the Board of Trade, Johan Rising, who as commissioner was to become Printz’s assistant. Instead, he now became his successor as governor. He was a patriotic, practically minded man who had many plans for raising the country’s trade and shipping. The now following events are, as we shall see, vividly described by Lindeström, whose information is not always entirely reliable, because his memory failed him on certain points. It does appear, however, that he had old diary notes to follow. Fortunately, Rising has also recounted his actions as governor, New Sweden’s capitulation, etc., in several official reports shortly after the events occurred. Immediately upon arrival, the new governor undertook an unwise and reckless action that became the real cause of the colony’s downfall. He forced Fort Casimir, defended by only 9 men, to capitulate and called it ”Trinity Fort.” By this, he, who believed he was following his instructions and was entirely within his rights, since the Swedes had bought the area from the Indians, came from the beginning onto a hostile footing with the Dutch, who could not stomach this insult but waited for a favorable opportunity to take revenge.

Rising then sought to strengthen his position by having all colonists, even the Dutch who wanted to enter Swedish service, swear an oath to the Swedish crown and the West India Company. The number of colonists had now increased fivefold. With the Dutch, they numbered 368 persons in July 1654. Rising also negotiated with the Indians and their chieftains to strengthen their friendly relationship with the Swedes. He intervened with strength and energy in all areas and urged all Swedes who had gone to Virginia or Maryland out of dissatisfaction with Governor Printz to return to New Sweden, which they refused to do.

A lively trade with the Indians now resumed, new areas in the forests were cleared, and Rising began to see the future somewhat brighter than before. But new misfortunes occurred. An eleventh expedition with the ship ”Gyllene Hajen” (The Golden Shark), which had been outfitted simultaneously with ”Örnen,” had been ordered to first go to Puerto Rico to demand compensation from the Spaniards for the losses the company had suffered through ”Kattan’s” plundering, which did not succeed. When the ship finally approached New Sweden, it steered ”through the pilot’s thoughtlessness or rather malice” into the Hudson River instead of Delaware Bay, whereupon the Dutch seized the opportunity to confiscate it with its entire valuable cargo as compensation for the capture of Fort Casimir. The friendly relationship between Holland and Sweden had now considerably cooled. The directors of the Dutch West India Company demanded that the Swedes should be driven completely away from the Delaware and sent a ship, ”De Waag” or ”Amsterdam’s Scale,” with 36 cannons and a crew of 200 men to the Dutch capital ”Manhattan” or ”New Amsterdam” (present-day New York) on the Hudson River, where in greatest secrecy they gathered an additional 6 vessels and more men and proclaimed a general day of repentance and prayer to get God on their side in the fight against the Swedes. Thus solemnly began the now following tragicomic events, which were humorously described by Lindeström. Although Rising ordered that Trinity Fort should be defended if attacked, no real defense could be contemplated, as the fortifications were practically useless and the soldiers were few, unreliable, and unwilling to fight against Dutch superiority. Trinity Fort, which had a garrison of 47 men, capitulated first. Then Fort Christina was besieged, where Rising commanded 30 men. When the enemy became increasingly threatening and ammunition was lacking and provisions began to run out, Governor Rising capitulated after 10 days of siege on September 15, 1655 without a fight. Meanwhile, the Indians had suddenly appeared to help their Swedish friends and in Stuyvesant’s absence attacked in large numbers, murdered, burned, and plundered the inhabitants of New Amsterdam, with 100 persons killed. The whole thing was serious enough that Stuyvesant regretted it and offered Rising to reoccupy Fort Christina if he would only agree to a division of the land, which was large enough for both nations. They would live in good friendship and make an alliance with each other—against the Indians! After a few hours of deliberation, the Swedes rejected ”the shameful offer,” because they did not want through an alliance with the Dutch to ”entangle themselves in hatred and war with the savages,” nor could they forgive the Dutch their violence, for which the Swedish government must ”demand revenge.” Moreover, after the Dutch plundering they were so stripped of all resources that they ”would have had to perish in misery and sat there as a spectacle to Christians as well as savages.” Some of the Swedes now went home on Dutch ships, among them Rising and Lindeström, but most remained and became Dutch subjects. Gradually they won their new masters’ trust and received a kind of self-government with their own officials, their own pastors, and Lutheran worship.

(Literature: Amandus Johnson, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664, I, II, Philadelphia 1911; an abridged edition of this large, solid, and detailed work has recently been published in Swedish by Axel Palmgren under the title ”Den första svenska kolonien i Amerika,” Stockholm 1923, C. Grimberg, Svenska Folkets Underbara Öden, III, 223 ff. Stockholm 1918, Carl Sprinchorn, Kolonien Nya Sveriges historia (Hist. Bibl. V, 1878), Nils Jacobsson, Svenskar och Indianer, Stockholm 1922. Of older literature, particularly noteworthy is Thomas Campanius Holm, Kort Beskrifning Om Provincien Nya Sverige uti America etc. Stockholm 1702, which work, however, is largely based on Lindeström’s ”Geographia Americæ.”)

THE DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA OR THE WEST INDIES

CONCERNING THE FARTHEST PART OF AMERICA, WITH GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS AND DRAWINGS OF VIRGINIA, NEW SWEDEN, NEW BATAVIA, AND NEW ENGLAND, AS WELL AS THE JOURNEY TO NEW SWEDEN, AND ABOUT THE NEW WORLD, MAP OF FORT TRINITY, PORTRAITS OF THE INDIAN, WESTERN SAVAGES, TOGETHER WITH FORT CHRISTINA’S SIEGE BY THE DUTCH, TOGETHER WITH THE CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN AND WESTERN WILD PEOPLES, WRITTEN IN 29 CHAPTERS ABOUT ALL MANNER OF THINGS IN AMERICA, WHICH ARE VERY STRANGE, AMUSING, ENTERTAINING, AND PLEASANT TO READ, AS THE FOLLOWING TABLE OF CONTENTS DEMONSTRATES. ALSO, AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING PEOPLE, LAND, AGRICULTURE, TIMBER WORK AND LIVESTOCK, GIVEN IN NEW SWEDEN, WITH CONCORDANCES IN THE MARGINS, SIMPLY AND BRIEFLY COLLECTED AND WRITTEN TOGETHER,

PEHR LINDESTRÖM

FORMERLY ENGINEER OF NEW SWEDEN AND LATER UNDER THE FORTIFICATION SERVICE HERE AT HOME IN SWEDEN.

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS ABOUT WHICH THIS MY GEOGRAPHIA AMERICÆ TREATS, ETC.

CHAPTER I. M.PAG:A Concerning the Journey to New Sweden, and what most notable and remarkable events occurred along the way—1 A General Geographical Map over Virginia, New Sweden, New Batavia, and New England, Letter A. or—63

CHAPTER II. M. Concerning some Notable Events that occurred upon our first arrival in New Sweden—108

CHAPTER III. M. Concerning the highly renowned and famous Zipangri, Canary, Fortunate, or Indian Islands, which belong to the New World, and who first discovered them—119 Also, How and with what process and ceremonies Christ is buried among the Catholics—125 As well as How the Catholics in Papistry read their peculiar Rosarum Amantium, and with their loving Pater Noster believe they can appease God—134

CHAPTER IV. M.PAG:A Concerning the Navigation of New Sweden or the South River from its mouth, and all along up the River, into the falls of Alinpinck—136

CHAPTER V. M. Concerning the Situation and nature of New Sweden’s Lands, which on both sides, as well on the western as on the eastern side, lie spread along the River’s banks—140 A Geographical Map and Drawing, per Majorem Scalam [on a larger scale], over New Sweden, Letter B, or—141 A Map Drawn in perspective, over Fort Trinity, Letter C: or—155

CHAPTER VI. M. Concerning the Weather in all 4 seasons, autumn and spring, winter and summer, with snow, rain, lightning and thunder, how they present themselves in New Sweden—156

CHAPTER VII. M. Concerning New Sweden’s agriculture and its plantations, together with what kind of grain, trees, fruit, herbs and roots most notably grow there at present—158

CHAPTER VIII. M. What kinds of animals, birds, and fish are found and wander in New Sweden and in the West Indian Islands—166

CHAPTER IX. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s natural disposition, life, temperament and appearance—170

CHAPTER X. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s marriage, and the wild women’s care for their childbearing

CHAPTER XI. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s attire, clothing, adornment and decoration—172 The Indian Savages’ Portraits in their adorned attire depicted. Letter D. or—173

CHAPTER XII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s handling and raising of children—176

CHAPTER XIII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s language—178

CHAPTER XIV. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s origin, warfare, government, and weapons—179

CHAPTER XV. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s superstition or idolatry, faith and religion, together with offerings to Manitto: the Devil. Also, how much knowledge the Indians have of Christ—181

CHAPTER XVI. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s dwellings—183

CHAPTER XVII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s hunting and shooting—185

CHAPTER XVIII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s fishing—189

CHAPTER XIX. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s crafting of nets and artful wares—190

CHAPTER XX. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s commerce, trade and dealings, and how the savages’ goods are sold to the Christians, together with how the Christians’ goods are traded for them to the savages—192

CHAPTER XXI. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s money and currency’s nature, together with what they are made from, and how much they are worth—198

CHAPTER XXII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s generosity, familiarity in conversation and association with the Christians, together with when the Christians visit the savages, how they are then received by them—202

CHAPTER XXIII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s navigation and vessels—206

CHAPTER XXIV. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s diseases, miraculous medicines, tyranny, bloodletting and patience—207

CHAPTER XXV. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s devil-chasing at their sickbed, and why their Doctors of Medicine are called devil-chasers—214

CHAPTER XXVI. M. How the American Wild People conduct themselves with the dead body, together with how their burials are held—216

CHAPTER XXVII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s housekeeping, with threshing, grinding, baking, brewing, burning, roasting and cooking—219

CHAPTER XXVIII. M. Concerning the American Wild People’s bathhouse customs—222

CHAPTER XXIX. M. Concerning the Siege of New Sweden by the Dutch—223 A Drawing and depiction over said Dutchmen’s Siege in New Sweden, Letter E: or—235 An Ordinance concerning land and agriculture, timber work and livestock, given in New Sweden, Anno 1654—240

THE END.

************************”’

DEDICATION TO PRINCE KARL (CHARLES XII). ”Dedicatio” or ”Epistola Dedicatoria”.

The Most Illustrious, High-born Prince and Lord, Lord Karl: Hereditary Prince of Sweden, the Goths and the Wends, Grand Duke of Finland, Duke of Scania, Estonia, Livonia, Karelia, Bremen, Verden, Stettin, Pomerania, Kassubia and Wendland, Prince of Rügen, Lord of Ingermanland and Wismar, as well as Count Palatine of the Rhine in Bavaria, of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, Duke, etc. etc.

My Most Gracious Lord etc.

The merciful grace and blessing of God the Most High, the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the powerful comfort, assistance and protection of the Holy Spirit, together with all desirable welfare for body and soul, next to my humbly devoted and faithfully obedient submission and obedience, are most fervently wished.Retry

CHAPTER I: The World and the New Continent

As the World is divided into four main parts—namely Europe, Asia, Africa, and America—and as the first three are generally well-known through description and common traffic, but the fourth, America, is unknown and unfamiliar to the majority, I shall endeavor to describe it in its entirety.

This great and wide part of the world, called America, or the West Indies, is separated from the other three parts of the world by a great and wide sea, so that this part of the world must rightly be called the New World.

America is divided into North America duck South America (or Peru). North America is ruled by different Christian Kings and Princes, such as the Kings of Spain, France, and England, and the Dutch, Swedes, and Danes—each having their own appointed areas.

The American Travelers Swear Their Oath of Allegiance to the Queen and the South Company

On January 27th, all the people on the ship Eagle, under flying banners, took their oath of allegiance that they would be loyal and faithful to Her Royal Majesty our most gracious Queen, our dear fatherland, and the highly praiseworthy Royal South Company, and thus conduct themselves in every way as loyal subjects and servants ought to and are required to do. They declared they would be able to answer before the Almighty God, Her Royal Majesty, the highly praiseworthy Royal South Company, and every honest man with a good and clear conscience. This took place in the presence of the (now deceased) Admiral, the well-born Mr. Ankerhjelm, the commissioner, the well-born Mr. Johan Rising, and their appropriate officers.

Departure from Gothenburg

Journey from Gothenburg to New Sweden. We set out in such a bitterly cold winter and strong storm, when the ice in the harbor entrance was quite strong and thick, and although we had no shortage of people, we still had enough to do that we could barely work our way to sea with great difficulty, and nearly became frozen in so that we would have had to take winter quarters there, although we made our utmost effort to be able to depart from Gothenburg. Still, we could not manage it easily. But when we finally reached the sea, we set our course along the coasts of Scotland and England.

Arrival at Calais in France

On February 16th, before sunrise, we arrived off the city of Calais in France. Our ship’s captain was so confused that he didn’t know in amazement where we were, because due to the dark and dim weather we had not been able to take any readings for 14 days. He couldn’t believe we had come so far and reached this place, although he knew this ship Eagle’s speed – that when it had a good driving wind, it sailed 45 miles per day. But about this, he said, if this is now Calais in France, then the Eagle has gotten other wings and shot forward like an eagle. When day came, we found ourselves to be off the cape of France, at which news the people on the ship rejoiced and were glad with great amazement. We then approached with our ship and cast anchor off Calais, where we had been at sea for 14 days on our journey from Gothenburg and had nearly been lost in the unspeakable, flying and violent storm and dark and gloomy weather.

A Horrifying Story About a Barber and a Pastry Maker

Here in Calais at that time, very delicious, tasty and rare pastries were baked, which were widely renowned. And I will here relate a story that had taken place in Calais, concerning a transaction between a barber and a pastry maker, which went as follows. The barber had an anteroom in his house in front of his parlor.

Under that room’s floor he had made himself a secret cellar, and on top of the floor was a square hatch, so neatly made that anyone who didn’t look more carefully could not see where it was joined together. This hatch also fit so tightly together that one could sit on a chair on it and it wouldn’t go down, but when one stamped hard once with a foot on it, it would immediately fall down. When some traveler who was of foreign nationality came to this barber to be groomed, he would have him in this aforementioned room and set a chair on this aforementioned hatch for him to sit on while he would groom him.

The stranger would do so. When the barber began to groom him and came under the chin to the throat to shave, he would cut his throat, and at the same time as cutting stamp on the said hatch with his foot, whereupon the hatch fell down and the man with the chair he sat on fell down into the cellar, and immediately thereafter he robbed him. And since the barber and pastry maker were in conspiracy and agreement together about this, the barber sold the human flesh to the pastry maker, from which he baked the aforementioned rare pastries. These were eventually revealed and exposed, namely, that two students of foreign nationality came traveling, and when they came in front of this barber on the street, one said to the other: ”Brother, you go and arrange for us a good lodging somewhere, where you can find some good people; I will meanwhile go in to this barber and have myself groomed, where I will await you until you come back to me again.” Meanwhile this barber finished him off in his usual aforementioned way with the others. Now the other one finally came back and asked the barber for his companion. He answered that he went on his way as soon as he had been groomed. But his comrade didn’t believe this but held his comrade’s word more trustworthy, in which he placed his trust. However, he didn’t know what to do. Nor did he dare accuse this barber so immediately, although he could have suspicions, but went first all around the city and searched for him but didn’t find him.

He therefore went back to the same barber, began to quarrel with him, told him that he must produce his comrade again, ”because here in the house,” he said, ”I must have him back.” The barber became angry at this, wanting to throw him out with blows and punches. The other one went and complained to the magistrate there in the city, informing them of the situation concerning his comrade with a request that he could get some good men with him to search the barber’s house for his comrade, which was granted to him. When those who were ordered to search arrived there, they searched everywhere but didn’t find him.

Finally they came into this aforementioned room, where the constable stopped on the hatch, saying with angry spirit: ”According to his comrade’s word and account, we must eventually have his comrade here in the house again,” and at that stamped on the hatch. With that the constable went down into the cellar onto the other’s comrade, who was still not undressed, where the cellar was as full of skulls and bones as in a bone chamber in a churchyard. Both the barber and the pastry maker were arrested and imprisoned and received shortly thereafter for their reward a miserable end. This story is now written for the reason that those who intend to travel and venture forth should first be able to learn from this how highly necessary it is for them to have a good and faithful companion, and secondly, that they may know how to guard themselves against such scoundrels in such and other cases and circumstances.

An Exciting Adventure in the English Channel

The same day, right after midday, we weighed anchor, hoisted sails and set our course directly through the channel. When we came somewhat closer to the English side at the English cape opposite the city of Dover, we became aware of three large English frigates: warships, which came from the Dutch course, which fiercely pursued us with a full wind and powerfully thundered with their guns firing in an attempt to command us to heave to and await their arrival, which command we did not obey, which greatly displeased them. When they finally reached us, from one frigate called ”The Parlé” which the English admiral, Monsieur Saiwerell commanded, they called out asking what ship this was and where it had come from. When we then answered that it was a Swedish ship, come from Stockholm, they didn’t believe it, because there was war between England and Holland then, but thought that it must certainly be a Dutch ship flying Swedish flags under false pretense, whereby they could pass freely past the English. And since our ship’s captain Bockshorn was a native Dutchman and answered them in Dutch, they conceived even greater suspicions from this.

They called out again and demanded our ship’s captain come aboard to present and let them see our pass, whereupon it seemed to us not necessary to lower our boat but answered that we were upright, honest Swedes; ”we are on our rightful journey and have nothing to do with you, you can safely believe our word.” They answered: ”If you will not comply with our request, you shall do so whether you want to or not,” and fired first one gun blank after our ship, then followed soon after several more, so that the rigging and spars flew off our ship, then hoisted the blood flag, showed us their gun ports and prepared for battle. We therefore hove to and hoisted out our boat. Our ship’s lieutenant was then sent with our most gracious queen’s pass provided to us aboard them, which they kept him under arrest and sent us their mate back with this news: If we wanted to pass safely through the channel, we could not do so without this English admiral’s passport. Therefore we had to follow these English ships back to the city of Dover again, to get a pass there, and arrived there at nightfall, where we cast anchor and remained lying there overnight. The water that runs between England and France is called the channel, which is 90 miles long and 5 miles wide but in some places wider. On the English side then every mile there was a warship lying at anchor along the entire channel toward the land in that war for defense and protection, past which we could not have passed and still afterward had to go back to Dover for a pass, wherefore it was fortunate for us that these ships arrested us before we could have gotten farther away and set our journey much more backward.

How Satan Rules in Dover and Other Places in England

And outside this city of Dover on a high mountain closer to England’s cape stands a beautiful, strongly fortified castle, which previously stood inside the city of Dover, but subsequently in one night Satan with his art and power moved it out of the city and onto the high mountain where it now stands, which he with his followers himself possesses and inhabits, nor can any human live or be therein in peace due to Satan’s strong temptations but he wants to be ruling there himself; it also burns there at nighttime as if it stood in flaming fire. And in England there are many beautiful, strong and secure castles and fortifications that Satan has such power over that no human can live or be therein.

Friendly Reception on the English Frigate

On February 17th, which was the second day, in the morning, Lieutenant Gyllengre

n was sent to the English aboard. The Englishman then promised departure, provided our commander or ship’s captain came there first and spoke with him. Thus Commander Sven Schute and I were ordered there to the English aboard and made everything ready, where we were first lavishly entertained and drank first to His Royal Majesty’s health of England, then our most gracious Queen’s memory of Sweden and salutes were fired with it. After receiving this entertainment we got our pass to pass freely and safely by the 90 English warships lying in the channel without any further attack. Then when we said farewell, English salutes were fired, and we were given a large basket, as much as two men could carry on a pole, full of oranges and lemons for refreshment and as a good token of friendship, which we received with thanks and brought aboard our ship. When we came aboard our ship, we immediately weighed anchor, hoisted sails and fired salutes, whereupon the English ships immediately answered with salutes, setting our course through the channel and toward Falmouth in England.

At a Feast with an English Governor

On February 27th we arrived in the harbor of Falmouth and cast anchor there, to remain for some days to take on fresh water, subsequently proceeding into the city of Perinconquick and cast anchor there. Commissioner Mr. Rising and I then had ourselves put ashore, spending two or three days there and came to lodging with the mayor there. Finally the governor of the place, by name Deputy, came to our lodging to greet us and learn any news, where we honored and treated him with all good, honor and service according to our utmost ability. When he now at last took his leave from us, he invited us to his place for a midday meal, which we had to accept and immediately follow him accordingly to the castle, where we were most magnificently entertained and kept for a long time, so that we didn’t come home to our lodging again until somewhat past midnight. There we drank His Royal Majesty’s health of England, our most gracious present Queen, Her Majesty Christina’s health, and the then approaching our most gracious king, His Royal Majesty King Charles X’s memory, and with each toast double English salutes were given, which continued with unceasing shooting from when we began drinking toasts during the meal until we said farewell at night, thereby demonstrating and showing a lasting and intimate friendship between the Swedes and English that would be indissoluble.

Peculiar Customs in England

Here in Falmouth there also appeared to us Swedes, who had not previously been in England, strange and foreign the English manner, in that when men and women came together to greet each other and shake hands, whether rich or poor, young or old, it is done with kissing. Also: The man and his wife ride on one horse together, the man in front in his saddle and leads the wife or cushion with him behind in a side-saddle, but both saddles joined together in one beam.

A Visit to the City ”Perin”

On February 28th, Commissioner Johan Rising and I walked from the city of Perinconquick to the city of Perin, which was about a quarter mile away above there, which we visited along with much else there. Both these aforementioned cities were strongly and well fortified and the aforementioned harbor (inlet) on both sides with strong fortification works well provided, as well as in some places on the sides in the very mountains small fortification works walled in, which one could not see unless one looked more carefully, when one became aware of the fire flash and smoke from the guns firing.

Entertainment by musicians

The same day, in the evening we went from Perin to Perinconquick to our lodging. And at night according to their country’s custom to honor those who are of foreign nationality who come to them, the city’s musicians also came to us, who for our honor performed a splendid and delicious music outside our lodging door, for which one had to open one’s purse.

Regarding the five senses

[The monks came] in great haste, understanding why he did this, although we said nothing about it. But his suspicion was well-founded in its value, for although our host at that time was a good Catholic, he had previously been Lutheran and was well acquainted with the Lutheran manner, that they have not renounced eating meat and fish during Passion Week of the year. Our host had then secretly prepared for us roasted chickens and such after the Lutheran manner, but not with the intention that the monks should become aware of it. If that happened, our host would have faced a dangerous punishment and penance. When the monks came through the door, we understood our host’s intention, so we immediately rose from the table, as if our meal had been finished, and engaged in conversation with the monks and the beautiful and virtuous nuns to establish friendship with them, treating them with wine and sugar confections, which were very cheap there.

And the monks were quite good drinking companions, who could well hold their own with the cup. I do not wish to omit here the reason why this our host converted to the Catholic religion; it was that he came there with a ship and had no means to advance, although he had studied very well. Whatever he undertook or attempted, fortune was against him and would not favor him, so that he could not succeed according to his intent. He then happened upon the wife he then acquired, who was a nun of great means, so that her beauty and virtue as well as riches deceived him into accepting the Catholic religion, because he could not have her unless he would also accept their Catholic religion, which in the end he did rather than abandon this nun. After that, everything went well for him in this world, and whatever he undertook, fortune was favorable and kind to him, but how it will go for him in the end with eternal glory, he will discover when the time comes.

How the Catholics seek to ”catch” the Lutherans

Thus the monks use this practice when any Lutherans come to them, to seduce and deceive them, namely with these two principal nets and tricks to catch them: First, they let the Lutherans see their religious glory in the monasteries and interpret and elevate it to the highest heaven. Second, they bring the most beautiful, virtuous and richest nuns they can find to the Lutherans, so that if they cannot get them by one way, they mean to get them into the net by the other way. Otherwise, the nuns among the Catholics are also of the belief that the one who is married to a Lutheran who will accept the Catholic religion will be much more blessed, holy and pleasing before God than one who gets a man of her own religion. The monks imagine and persuade them to believe this. When this happens, the monks say to the nun: ”Oh, how blessed you will be before God, who through your virtue, godliness, beauty and virtue brings God a soul which otherwise would have been eternally damned. Yes, you may truly be called a rare bird.” Therefore the Catholic nuns also strive greatly to see how they might deceive and ensnare a Lutheran.

The author ”discourses” fiercely in Latin with a monk who wants to convert him to believe in the Virgin Mary

On the 24th of March the monks came again to us in our lodging, offering us that if we wished to see their glory in the monasteries there, it would be permitted to us, wanting to accompany us there themselves to demonstrate to us what might be holy, whereby they would show great affection and service toward us and thereby enlighten us, who were strangers and had not previously known of such holiness and glory as is to be found among them. Since we understood them to value this offered honor and service so highly, we thanked them for it. Although we knew this would not pass without expenses and gratuities, we prepared ourselves for it, and since we had not seen such things before, we followed the monks, going with them from one monastery to another, where there were 11 monasteries, which they read to us everywhere, and showed us all their holiness and glory and interpreted in Latin what it all was and meant. When we finally came to the last monastery, one of the monks said to me, who was a wicked scoundrel: ”Come with me here aside behind the pillars, and I will also show you something here.” I went with him. When we got there, there was nothing else to see than a precious crucifix of Jesus Christ and an image of Mary, which we had nevertheless seen more beautiful and precious in the other monasteries we had just come from. But his fox was not there; rather, he wanted to get me apart to discourse with as he wished. Bowing and crossing himself first before Christ’s crucifix and Mary’s image, he rudely addressed me, saying: ”Do you not hear yourself [that Mary is the true mediator]? Yes, tell me, is it not right and true?” ”No,” I answered, ”Jesus Christ, who has suffered death for my, your and the whole world’s sins, he is not only the true reconciler but also the true mediator, whom we shall use.” ”I hear,” he said, ”you are mad and will not be persuaded but want to remain in your madness in darkness. Therefore it is not worth my speaking with you about this anymore, you still cry like the wolf: lamb, lamb. So now I will go home again. Give me something now, for having followed you!” So I gave him half a piece ’von acht’ (half a riksdaler) and was glad that I thus got rid of him.

A Danish ”scoundrel” is sold as a slave

Here in the Canaries our ship’s captain Bockshorn sold a Jutlander as a slave, whom he took at the Sound near Helsingør, an insolent scoundrel who respected neither life nor soul, for whom he received 400 pieces ’von achten’ (riksdaler), though to be paid in Canary sugar at 2 öre silver money per pound. And thus for said Jutlander he received 9,600 pounds of Canary sugar and even some barrels of syrup into the bargain, whereat the scoundrel Jutlander did not even think it was bad nor gave himself any concern but stood and laughed at it and said: ”I must be a very fine fellow, who is worth so much and costs such great money, where I shall come into service.” Yes, poor fellow, for the service he got, which he will soon experience, who daily shall provide his lord and master half a riksdaler per day, as long as he lives, he may take him where he will, whether he procures that money through work or theft, his master does not ask about that. There are long days and expensive people, so he can well earn that money per day, but then he must not be any lazy fellow.

CHAPTER II: The Location of New Sweden

Now, as the goal of my journey is only the part that lies in North America and is called Nova Svecia, or New Sweden (Nya Sverige), I will therefore only concern myself with describing this part of the world.

New Sweden lies in the northern part of America, at a latitude of 39 degrees and 25 minutes. This land is bordered to the North by New England, to the West by the Wild Peoples (Vilde Menniskiors), and to the South by Virginia.

Through this land runs a great, beautiful, and navigable river, called the Delaware River, also known by the Indians as the South River (Söder Reviret).

[BILDPLATS: karta-nova.suecia.jpg] (Map of Virginia and Nova Suecia, showing the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.)

The mouth of the river is bordered by Cape May (on the Dutch side) and Cape Hinlopen (on the Swedish side). A third of a mile from Cape Hinlopen, three large Oyster Banks lie beneath the water, between which it is dangerous to sail.

CHAPTER III: The People, Climate, and Flora

The soil is a very rich, dark, fertile, and deep black earth, so that no fertilizer is required to cultivate it, yielding a heavy harvest. The climate is very temperate, not as cold or hot as in our native Sweden.

The seasons are clearly defined, but the Summer (Sommaren) is often very hot and dry, with the sun burning brightly, often followed by powerful lightning and thunderstorms.

The forests are large and thick, featuring the finest Oak for shipbuilding, Chestnut (with large and tasty nuts), Walnut, and Hickory. Edible fruits include Wild Grapes (red and white, suitable for wine), and various Plums duck Cherries. The ground also yields Sweet Potato (Battatas) and Tobacco, which the Wild Peoples cultivate.

CHAPTER IV: The Wild Peoples – Appearance and Customs

The inhabitants, whom we call the Wild Peoples or Indians, are of medium height, with a skin color that is a yellowish brown or copper-red. Their hair is black, thick, and long.

The men often shave a part of their head but leave a long hair lock on the crown, which they adorn with feathers. They paint their faces and bodies with various colors, especially red and blue, to appear more terrifying or beautiful. They wrap themselves in Beaver or Bear skins in winter.

[Lindeström’s observation on binding children for strength:] When the wild people give birth to their children, for they do not know of any midwife, they bind the child with the skin of one of the most poisonous types of snakes that roam in New Sweden, as a charm to make the child strong and courageous.

[BILDPLATS: indianfamily.png eller Peter-Lindestroems-drawing…] (Lindeström’s Drawing of a Lenape Family, illustrating the feathered hair lock and dress.)

CHAPTER V: Religion, Dwellings, and Commerce

Religion and the Manitto

The natives choose a personal idol, or Paahra, when they are about 15 years old—perhaps a lion’s claw, a bear’s tooth, or a bird’s beak—which they hang on their chest in a chain of Wampum (their money). They believe this idol grants them good hunting if they dream of it the night before. Their first kill of the spring is never sold, but made a burnt offering to Manitto, or the Devil, to ensure luck for the rest of the year.

They believe in the Christian story of Christ and the Apostles, but consider it a mere fable passed down by their fathers. They say a ’great-mouth’ (Apostle) and a son of a virgin who drank from a brook both performed wonders and ascended into the air, promising to return, but ”he never came back.”

Dwellings and Service

Their winter houses are immense structures of posts and bark, often 100 to 300 ells in length, with an open smoke vent along the ridge. The fire burns day and night along the center, and the people lie lengthwise between the fire and the walls. They have only one door on each gable.

The Wild People are willing and ready to serve the Christians as if they were their subordinates, but only if commanded with good words. They are, though they do not know it, the Christians’ slaves, without whom the trade and commerce of the Christians would be of little value.

CHAPTER VI: The Voyage Commences (1653)

The expedition was commanded by the new Governor, Johan Classon Risingh. I was commissioned as the royal engineer and cartographer. We sailed on the King’s ship, “The Eagle” (Örnen), armed with 22 cannons.

We departed from Gothenburg on the 2nd of September, 1653.

The Danish Scoundrel

When we reached the Canary Islands, an act of harsh expediency took place. Our Captain, Bockshorn, sold a Dane (en Jute), whom he considered a scoundrel and troublemaker (possibly a prisoner taken from Öresund), as a slave to a Spanish gentleman. The price was 400 Riksdaler, paid in 9,600 pounds of Canary sugar and syrup. The scoundrel himself stood there, merely laughing heartily at his own misfortune.

The Hagedia

While exploring the English plantations on St. Christopher, I encountered a hideous creature called a ”Hagedia”. It was as tall as a hunting dog, sky-blue on its back and blood-red beneath, with terrible eyes. Despite my prayers and crossing myself, the beast followed me relentlessly all the way back to the town’s borders. I believed it to be Satan himself.

CHAPTER VII: Arrival in America (1654)

After a passage lasting four months and twenty-six days, we sighted land on the 12th of February, 1654. We were disoriented and believed we had landed too far south, in the great bay called Chesapeake (Chesapeakeviken), in the English colony of Virginia.

On the 19th of April, to refresh our weary and sick crew, we purchased a huge Dutch ox for 1,440 pounds of tobacco to provide meat for the survivors.

Lost, Found, and the Cost of Life

After sailing back and forth near Virginia for six full days, fearing we had missed the Delaware entrance, we fired shots at passing English Ketches until one finally agreed to guide us. We were led to the entrance of the New Sweden Bay on the 18th of May.

On the 22nd of May, we finally reached Fort Christina. God be praised! Our journey to the West Indies was happily accomplished. But few survived from the many we brought from Sweden. Most had died on the voyage, and the survivors were mostly sick and weak.

CHAPTER VIII: Conquest and the Mosquito Castle

The Shame of ”Mosquitoburg”

On the 20th of May, we arrived before Fort Elfsborg and found it completely abandoned and decayed. The Swedes had abandoned the fort solely because of the Mosquitoes (Mosquiter), which were so numerous they would have eaten the people alive. They sucked the blood until people became weak and sick. For this reason, the fort has earned the name ”Mosquitoburg” (Myggeborg).

The False Alarm of the Fireflies

Our very first night at Fort Christina, a new soldier on guard duty observed the Spanish Flies (Eldflugor) glowing brightly in the forest. He immediately cried out: ”Alarm! The enemy is here with burning fuses!” The drummers beat the alarm (Trummorna slog larm), and everyone rushed to arms—only to discover that the enemy was nothing more than the innocent glow of the Fireflies.

The Taking of Fort Casimir

As we proceeded up the river, Governor Risingh commanded an attack on Fort Casimir, which the Dutch had wrongfully built on Swedish soil. The Dutch commander surrendered without a single shot being fired. The fort was renamed Fort Trinity (Fort Trefaldighet).

(Lindeström’s Drawing of Fort Trinity, as he fortified it.)

CHAPTER IX: Governing and Diplomacy

English Disputes and Swedish Law

When the English Commander, Lawrence Lloyd, claimed rights to New Sweden based on a donation from King James, our Governor firmly countered that any Spanish claim would be stronger. We mocked the notion of Papal Donations of lands the Pope did not possess. We asserted the Swedish right based on legal purchase, providing the ancient documents proving the acquisition from Cape May to Cape Henlopen. The dispute was settled in our favor.

The Great Indian Council

On the 17th of June, ten of the highest Indian Sachems gathered at Printzhov. We thanked them for their friendship and reminded them of the lands purchased. Chief Naaman responded warmly, and as a clear sign of deep and lasting friendship, he gently stroked his arm as he spoke of peace.

CHAPTER X: The Fall of New Sweden (1655)

The tranquility was fragile. The Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant would never tolerate the Swedish presence. In September 1655, Stuyvesant arrived with an overwhelming force of seven large warships and over 500 well-armed soldiers.

The Dutch first attacked and seized Fort Trinity. The Swedish garrison fought bravely for fourteen days, but insufficient supplies forced their surrender.

Seeing the overwhelming numbers, Governor Risingh was forced to agree to a formal capitulation. On the 15th of September, 1655, the Swedish flag was lowered over Fort Christina for the last time. The Dutch took formal possession of the entire region.

Many of the Finnish settlers chose to stay, having established their homes in the woods, but Governor Risingh and I, along with the remaining officials, prepared for the return journey to report on the great loss to the King.

CHAPTER XI: The Journey Home and Final Report

The passage across the Atlantic was perilous, for the weather was severe. We encountered a terrible, sudden hurricane where several sailors were hurled overboard. To save the ship, we were forced to chop down the masts.

During this misfortune, I personally suffered a great loss: I lost all my finest belongings in the Western Sea, including many of my precious mineral samples and several of the early sketches and notes I had made.

We steered the disabled ship to the Swedish port of Wismar for repairs. I was later summoned before the Royal Government to present my completed Great Map of New Sweden and to give a written and oral report on the land, which ultimately became this very work, the ”Geographia Americæ.”

[BILDPLATS: karta-nova.suecia.jpg]

(Lindeström’s Great Map, which he presented to the King.)

”After this fort, one sails past another place called New Castle (Nya Castill). The first fort of the Swedes, called Fort Elfsborg, located in the lower region of New Sweden, was established in the year 1643 by His Excellency, the late Governor, Johan Printz.”

Portrait of Governor Johan Printz, who ruled the colony before Lindeström’s arrival.)